Nicola Bulley news: ‘Clairvoyants’ and amateur sleuths risk hindering probe

Amateur detectives are causing distress and confusion as they descend on the small village where Nicola Bulley went missing, neighbours claimed last night.

As the search for the mother-of-two in the Lancashire village of St Michael’s on Wyre enters its eleventh day, sleuths are said to be hindering progress with ‘crackpot’ theories. 

The community is trying to ‘rise above it’, a friend claimed, but online speculation is making things harder for the 45-year-old’s family. 

It comes as police will start to work with independent search experts, who are contributing more high-spec equipment, this morning. 

Forensics expert Peter Faulding, who is flying in to join the search, said he hoped to be able to confirm whether or not Ms Bulley was in the river by the end of Monday. 

Superintendent Sally Riley said ‘clairvoyants’ had phoned the police helpline claiming to know Ms Bulley’s whereabouts. 

A neighbour of the missing mother, who was out every day helping the police with their search, said she had come across a man questioning locals.  

The man is said to have been sprouting ‘crackpot’ theories and had apparently attended hundred of similar missing person cases nationwide. 

The local, who asked not to be named, said: ‘It’s upsetting to hear this sort of stuff from someone who has just turned up for their own interest.’   

Meanwhile, reports claim a pair of armchair detectives travelled to the village from Leeds last week with a handheld camera to take ‘documentary evidence’. 

The community is trying to ‘rise above’ the influx of amateur sleuths, said Heather Gibbons, a friend of Ms Bulley.  

The police called the online speculation and abuse ‘totally unacceptable’, as an internet forum discussing ‘true crime’ cases reached nearly 1,000 posts about the case. 

It comes as CCTV pictures of Ms Bulley leaving home for the school run on the day she disappeared were published yesterday.

The mother can be seen in a long jacket, leggings and walking boots with her hair tied in a pony tail before taking her two daughters on the 3.8-mile journey to school in the village on January 27.

Friends of the couple have also begged armchair detectives and keyboard warriors to stop speculating about the involvement of her partner Paul Ansell. 

They say the CCTV images show why Mr Ansell has not been considered a suspect, as it is understood that he was at home at the time of Ms Bulley’s disappearance.  

The moment Nicola Bulley’s young daughter spotted search teams looking for the missing mother was also captured on video at the weekend. 

The six-second video shared by friends showed daughter Sophia, six, pointing towards a search team and asking: ‘Them helicopters, they’re looking for mummy.’

Over the weekend, her two girls performed at a gymnastics show – with an empty seat saved for Ms Bulley, who had booked a ticket days before she went missing – as friends and family try to keep their lives as normal as possible.

Emma White, a friend, told The Telegraph that the girls tended to do a lot of activities over the weekend, usually with their mother. 

‘Over the weekend they had a gymnastics show and there was an empty seat, which was obviously hard as mummy should be watching them.’ 

Friends added that Ms Bulley’s daughters also attended a school disco on Friday as part of efforts among parents to ‘keep things as normal as possible’ for the children.

Jill Peck, who attended a vigil to light candles at St Michael’s Church on Sunday, told Sky News: ‘If something was in the diary, it’s been kept in the diary. They are aware that something is happening but we’re trying to keep it away from the school.

‘They just desperately want her home – and that’s all they are asking, all the time, is “where is she and is she coming home?”‘.

Other family members attended the Candlemas service, where more than 50 worshippers lit a candle for the mother. 

She and her partner are active members of St Michael’s Church, often attending services and helping decorate for Christmas. 

The Rev Andrew Wilkinson asked for prayers for Ms Bulley during the service and afterwards said: ‘As a family, they are so very positive, energetic and full of life. 

‘They are lovely to be with. Nicola was always joining in and had lots of friends.’ 

Specialist search teams are now expected to start setting up extra high-tech equipment from 8am today. 

Police have called in extra divers to assist in the search for the mother – after initially turning down specialist assistance despite the family’s pleas.

Mr Faulding, founder of private search and rescue organisation Specialist Group International, initially said Lancashire Police had refused his offer of divers and equipment.

But in a subsequent statement, he confirmed his team left Surrey on Sunday evening to join in the operation.

He said: ‘I have just had a long call with the Lancashire Police search adviser to discuss the search for Nicola. We will work closely with the police search teams who are working long hours to find Nicola.

‘The team are leaving shortly from our base in Dorking en route to Lancashire to start tomorrow [Monday] morning.’ 

Mr Faulding told Sky News on Sunday that he will be bringing ‘high-spec’ sonar equipment that has a ‘very high hit rate’ in search operations.

He said: ‘We’re assisting with our dive team. We carry out all the underwater operations in the South East for the police anyway. But we’re bringing a particularly high-spec piece of equipment, 1,800-kilohertz specialist side-scan sonar.

‘Each year we deal with a lot of drownings and we locate them extremely quickly. The difference with this sonar is that it’s very, very high-frequency. 

‘It’s about £55,000 and it scans the river and I can see every stick and stone lying on the river bed. We’ve got a very high hit rate with this.

He added: ‘Our sonar is probably a bit more superior but I’ve got a lot of specialist search expertise and I’ve worked on hundreds of these cases and we always generally find people within the hour in lakes…’ 

Meanwhile, the diving expert also said he believes it is unlikely that the river bank is the correct answer regarding the disappearance. 

Mr Faulding told GBNews: ‘The amount of searching that’s gone on in this river, I would have thought she would have been found by now. Normally when a person drowns, if they are left a number of days they don’t move very far.

‘This is not a fast tidal river. So I would have expected her to be found by the police divers by now… It’s as clear as that. 

‘And you know, none of this rings right to me. My belief is she’s not in not in the river at all.’

He added that not enough factors added up in his opinion, suggesting Ms Bulley’s phone could have been left on the bench as a ‘decoy’. 

He continued: ‘I personally think this phone could be a decoy.

‘We dealt with a drowning a couple of years ago where a gentleman went into a river and Ripley, his dog, was screaming by the riverbank when we got there.

‘When we arrived it was howling, and literally pointing exactly where he was. He stayed with his owner.

‘The phone on the bench, I mean, you have to ask, normally someone would have a phone in their hand especially if they were walking around.’

The forensics worker said it ‘feels odd’ that no one spoke of the fact that Ms Bulley was not wearing clothes that would have absorbed water quickly, there were no marks at the scene and that not one person heard screams.

And he criticised the fact that the location has not remained cordoned off.

He said: ‘People have been walking past the bench. There’s no police tape up. This would normally be sealed off as a crime scene, so potentially crime scene investigators can go in and see if there are any microfibres, evidence, slip marks down the bank etcetera and I don’t believe that has actually happened here.’ 

Tilly Ann, a friend of the missing mother, shared 11 key details about her disappearance.

Essential information from her Facebook post read that the only CCTV camera at a residential caravan park ‘that would have seen Nikki’ is not working.

She added that her friend and her partner Paul take the walk along the river regularly and would be well-recognised by the local community.

Ms Ann noted that Ms Bulley is ‘an incredibly strong swimmer’ and her dog Willow who she was walking was completely dry when found. 

She wrote that the dog would never have a harness on during the familiar walk and is removed at a gate at the top of the field. When the dog was found, it was very close to the bench along with the harness on the floor. 

She added that her friend would often put her phone on loud-speaker when talking – her phone was discovered close to the river bank and she had previously been on a conference call before she vanished.

The family friend thanked those who had shared their support and contributed to the search for Nicola – saying it had ‘created such a comfort to Nikki’s family’.

Detailing the impact on Paul, she wrote that he is struggling to hold back his pain, but is focusing on his children and does not want to worry them ‘more than they already are’.

On Saturday, police released an image of a potential witness who was spotted in the area at the time of Ms Bulley’s disappearance.

Later that evening, they released a statement that said the force are ‘pleased to say that the woman came forward very quickly’ and were treating her as a ‘key witness’ in the investigation.

Lancashire Police said: ‘We must stress that she was very much being treated as a witness and was one of many people in St Michael’s on Friday, January 27.

‘Our enquiries to find Nicola are extensive and will include speaking to as many members of the public as possible.’

Police are particularly interested in speaking with people who may have been travelling near Blackpool Lane and Garstang Lane between 9am and 10am on the day Ms Bulley vanished.   

Photographs of police scouring the River Wyre in St Michael’s on Wyre in Lancashire where the mother was last seen have been released as they continue to search.

The police insist it is their primary theory despite not having found any evidence that she slipped or fell into the river.

Following their first lead of the new witness, they are continuing the investigation as the search on the Wyre River enters its eleventh day.

A second line of inquiry relates to a Fitbit Ms Bulley was wearing on the morning she vanished. Police hope to use technology to help track her whereabouts via the smart watch.

Fitbits are also capable of monitoring a heart rate and could provide vital clues relating to her last known movements. 

Another friend, Emma White, said on Saturday that the Fitbit had not been synced to a device since Tuesday. 

Ms White, near to the spot where Ms Bulley was last seen, said: ‘The police are trying to use the data from her Fitbit to find her. The watch can receive data, but cannot connect to the internet.

‘However, we hope they can somehow locate it using Bluetooth signals from people’s phones. We are clinging to hope. Nicola falling into the river is just a hypothesis.’

She added the Fitbit has not ‘synced’ with its servers since the Tuesday before Ms Bulley’s disappearance.

There are ways to access a Fitbit’s data using the app on the owner’s phone or third-party tracking apps, which can allow any smartphone to sync with the device if it is within a 100ft radius.

But this only lasts for as long as the Fitbit still has battery left. 

While maintaining it is still the ‘lead theory’ that Ms Bulley somehow came to be in the water, police have now revealed there is no evidence that backs this up – a sentiment which has been repeatedly echoed by the missing mother’s family.

Lancashire Police Superintendent Sally Riley told The Sunday Times there is ‘no evidence of a slip or fall’ in the area at the centre of the investigation.

‘I think if it had been a sloping bank, a commonsense view would be that you would expect to find scuff marks.

‘If it is sheer and you lose your footing, you might not have any marks left on the grass. All of that has been subjected to a detailed search.’ 

Superintendent Riley said on the balance of probabilities, it is ‘highly unlikely’ criminal activity took place in such a tiny window of time which is currently unaccounted for.

Police are still trying to piece together about ten minutes from the morning Ms Bulley disappeared.

She said: ‘This is a low-crime area. It’s genuinely a safe, tight-knit area, people look out for each other. 

‘A third-party [being] involved that we haven’t yet had sightings of, we haven’t caught on CCTV or dash-cam or all the other things I’ve mentioned, is just not likely.’

This does not mean they’ve entirely ruled out other scenarios. 

Officers are still appealing for witnesses to come forward, particularly near a CCTV black spot near Garstang Lane.

And Ms Bulley’s distraught partner has not given up hope of finding her alive, stating he ‘will not entertain any other outcome’ as the search continues.

Father-of-two Paul Ansell, 44, said Ms Bulley’s disappearance feels ‘no more real now’ than it did when he first learned she was missing.

‘The agony continues… the hope is stronger than ever of finding you. We need her home… we need a happy ending to this nightmare,’ he said. 

Mr Ansell also doubled down on comments from Ms Bulley’s friends and other relatives warning police have very little basis for their theory that she fell in the river.

He said there was ‘no evidence yet to suggest any scenario over another and all options must be kept wide open’. 

Amid reports of a widening difference of opinion between Ms Bulley’s family and detectives, Mr Ansell echoed police’s pleas for potential witnesses who might have dashcam footage to come forward. 

‘Whilst you may not think that you hold any relevant information, it is really important that we gather as much footage as possible from the area that morning so we can review every piece meticulously to establish whether Nicola can be seen,’ police said.

‘We know from the footage we are currently reviewing, that this is a busy road, particularly at that time in the morning.

‘There will be many people who were in that area at the time who may not think they can help, however we would urge you not to make that decision yourself and to come forward so we can have as much material as possible to assist the investigation.’

Substantial CCTV in the region has all but ruled out she left the park from most of the surrounding gates, but the path leading to Garstang Lane toward the A5/A6 has thus far proven to be a camera black spot.

Supt Riley told the Lancashire Post: ‘Several exits of the riverside area have CCTV covering them or exits are locked and therefore couldn’t have been passed through by Nicola. 

‘There’s only a very small area on to Garstang Lane toward the A5/A6 which is not covered by CCTV and that’s why we’re appealing today for dashcam footage or for people who may have been walking on Garstang Lane or driving in the area to come forward if they can.’ 

The owners of a caravan park close to the riverbank where Ms Bulley is believed to have fallen into the water have already had their CCTV tapes seized by police. 

Police expressed concerns the missing mother-of-two may have fallen in the icy cold water on River Wyre while trying to retrieve her dog Willow’s tennis ball. 

Specialist search crews have not recovered a ball – or anything of note – at this stage.

If Ms Bulley did fall into the water, she may have been weighed down by the heavy clothing she was wearing on the day she vanished.

But her sister Louise Cunningham urged the public to keep an open mind in a social media post on Saturday. 

‘Off the back of the latest police media update, please can I add there is no evidence whatsoever that she has gone into the river, it’s just a theory,’ she said.

‘Everyone needs to keep an open mind as not all CCTV and leads have been investigated fully, the police confirmed the case is far from over.’

‘Anyone with information or footage is asked to call 101, quoting log 565 of January 30. For immediate sightings, please call 999.’

Friends of the family said on Friday that Ms Bulley’s daughters had been asking: ‘Where’s Mummy? How is Mummy?’  

Their father is trying to put on a brave face for the children, and is being supported by Ms Bulley’s distraught parents and sister.

The missing mortgage adviser sent a text to a friend organising a playdate for their children minutes before she vanished, it emerged. 

A resident of the village said: ‘She booked a playdate, 8.57am, she sent a text message to a friend whose mortgage she had just recently signed off on to arrange for the girls to go for tea this week.’

The local, who did not want to be named, said this was more evidence that she had no intention of voluntarily disappearing, adding: ‘You wouldn’t have done that if you were going to get up and go missing.’